Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus having a wireless local area network (LAN) function, and a control method for controlling the communication apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
A communication apparatus (for example, a smart phone) having a wireless LAN function can perform wireless communication with other devices by connecting to an access point. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-261938 discusses a device for displaying a Quick Response (QR) code (registered trademark) including connection information for connecting to an access point. The communication apparatus reads a QR code by using a camera function to acquire connection information included in the QR code. Then, the communication apparatus connects to an access point indicated by the acquired connection information.
The method used by the communication apparatus to acquire connection information from an external source is not limited to the method using a QR code, and various methods are known. For example, it is known that the communication apparatus acquires connection information from an external source using Near Field Communication (NFC) or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
A user can install various applications in a communication apparatus, such as a smart phone. Some applications control the communication apparatus to acquire connection information from an external source by using the above-described QR code, NFC, and BLE. However, some communication apparatuses inhibit applications from changing communication settings including a setting for connection to an access point.
Such communication apparatuses can still allow an application to display connection information acquired from an external source. In this case, a user of the communication apparatus checks the displayed connection information, and manually instructs the communication apparatus to wirelessly connect to an access point. However, a security key for connecting to an access point is generally a meaningless random alphanumeric character string. Even if the application displays such a security key, the user will find it difficult to memorize the security key and troublesome to take a note of the security key. If the user makes an attempt to input the characters of the security key one by one to the communication apparatus, an input error is likely to occur.